We would like to say that things aren't quite as bad as they appear at first glance, but usually, because buying a property is quite a stressful time for everyone, especially when adding the stress of a loan process, things look worse than they really are. Dolby Properties tries to make things go a little smoother for everyone, as far as we can. However, we should advise that it is not uncommon for closings to be delayed by several days, due to one thing or another. In most cases, everything works out just fine and everyone relaxes after everything is signed and the buyers become the proud new owners of their Florida property.

One of the major differences we have come across is that here in Florida, we seem to take it for granted that any documentation that the Mortgage Broker, Lender, Real Estate Professional, Title Company and any other professional involved, gives us to sign, is OK to sign without reading through every single line and word (which would take a week to read!). People from the UK often start to feel uncomfortable at this stage, because in the UK, it is customary to take away the forms/contracts and have a solicitor read through them first (which of course, costs money).

Here, every professional has to be licensed and uses the same standard forms for loan and real estate transactions. These are all mandated by the State of Florida and we are all highly regulated in what we do. We don't necessarily like having to go through the reams of paperwork that we have to have clients sign, but we all have to have the same forms in our files, in case we are audited by the various State departments.

The State of Florida is highly geared towards consumer protection and most of the forms you will sign are actually to protect you, the consumer. In addition, everything here is public record and the professionals you are dealing with can easily be checked out and their licenses and status verified online, which should give a greater degree of confidence. This, plus our strict requirements for ongoing education and training of professionals, are some of the reasons we seem to assume that people will trust in our handling of transactions.